Prelude: Dick Griffin

Behind amber eyes, the echoes of another city superimpose themselves over this one, as the metal beast bounds over the roads. Here are the the great walls of mud-brick, cracked and dusty under the beating rays of the sun. Here is the library, where cuneiform stone tablets sit filed away, impossible and forbidden knowledge scratched onto them in languages predating the very first. Here is the town center, where the marketplace is. Was. Now it is ablaze, strewn with viscera, bodies laying stripped of skin in the streets. The scent of cooking man-meat fills the air here.

That was the last thing I smelled, wasn't it? The burning. All throughout the city. Within me, as well. It was a boy. I wish I knew his name.

Here is the temple, where foul oblations are made to a bronze statue of a thing that is not a man, and a silver statue of a thing that is not a woman. Smoke rises from the not-man, and muffled screams can be heard within. A fire has been built around its base, heating it to unbearable temperatures. There is someone inside. They are dying. The not-woman stares on.

I wonder how she's doing. If she got out. If I escaped, it makes sense that she would too. But where? She could be anywhere. I wish I could see her again. I-

Swerve, screech. Burning rubber. A grunt. A roar of an engine.

"Slow down, asshole!"

Worm. Pathetic. Lower than low. Disgusting man-scum. I should burn him alive. I should feed him his own fingers. I should tear out his intestines and strangle him with them. Doesn't he understand who I am? Doesn't he understand what I can do, have done? Doesn't he understand that this is my city, ought to be my city, damn that Spentu Mainyu and his pathetic court, I will gut him and parade his hollowed-out body through the streets like the worthless puppet he is, I will-

Fire raining from the sky, a thousand voices calling out to gods that will not come to their aid, for they are nothing compared to its power, to that of the Brazen Bull with the Thousand-Eyes, for this is his city, Sepharvaim shall bow to the one known as Adra-

Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.

The protestations of brakes. Pull to the side. Stop. Breathe.

I can't be this. I can't do this. I have a meeting to attend. But who is this Shemyaza? How could he know that name, my name, I wish it would just go away, be forgotten. It's that damn name that has me like this. Damn him, and damn Abezethibou. I could have his job if I wanted.

But I won't. I won't bow to their system. I won't be a part of their court, lord over others, I won't be that again. So help me Lucifer.

An engine. Revving. Wheels turning, and away.